The new Archbishop of Suceava and Radauti was enthroned Sunday at Suceava during a solemn ceremony held after the Divine Liturgy in the presence of hierarchs, monastics and believers.
The service was presided over by His Eminence Metropolitan Teofan of Moldavia and Bukovina, whose assistant was the now Archbishop Calinic of Suceava for thirteen years.
During the Sunday Divine Liturgy, Metropolitan Teofan spoke about the virtues of bishops and remembered Archbishop Pimen of blessed memory, while expressing his hope that the new Archbishop of Suceava will carry out the same spirit of edification, confession and love for the Church.
‘In his ministry, the hierarch receives a lot of honour from people, and many praises, some of them sincere, others out of interest. He receives all of them with thankfulness, discernment and scepticism, knowing well that the mystery of the Cross is his permanent vestment,’ the Metropolitan of Moldavia and Bukovina said July 26.
Following the Divine Liturgy, His Grace Bishop Ignatie of Husi read out the Metropolitan Gramata on the Enthronement of the new Archbishop of Suceava and Radauti.
Metropolitan Teofan bestowed the newly enthroned Archbishop Calinic a blessing cross and an engolpion on behalf of His Beatitude Patriarch Daniel, but also the mantle and staff leading the Archbishop to the episcopal throne.
The mantle, having depictions of Ruler Prince Saint Stephen the Great and St John the New of Suceava, was brought by the abbots of Putna and Sihastria Putnei Monasteries, two of the most representative monastic settlements in the area.
‘Now at the beginning of Your Eminence’s ministry in a new church dignity and responsibility, we entrust you with our appreciation and personal support, but also that of the hierarchs of the Holy Synod of the Romanian Orthodox Church, in the holy work to which you have been called unto the glory of the Most Holy Trinity, the joy of our Church and the benefit of the Romanian people,’ Patriarch Daniel noted in a message sent to the new Archbishop.
At the end of the ceremony, His Eminence Archbishop Calinic promised to continue the consolidation of the stone churches and of the spiritual Church in his Archdiocese.
‘The word resounds, the deed thunders,’ he said citing a former abbot of Putna Monastery, Elder Hyacinth (Iachint) Unciuleac.
‘I want to assure you that besides my severity, you will meet a warm soul, who four decades ago left the clothing of the body of this world at the gates of Putna Monastery to renew it with the vestment of the Spirit under the spiritual guidance of Elder Hyacinth Unciueac and of His Eminence Archbishop Pimen, two pillars of Bukovina’s Orthodoxy in the second half of the 20th century.’
Archbishop Calinic also recalled several ‘luminous portraits of saintly hierarchs’ in the history of the Romanian Church and highlighted the inheritance of Saint Stephen the Great.
Photography courtesy of Basilica.ro / Raluca Ene
Follow us on Twitter: @BasilicaNews & @BasilicaPhotos
Thank you for reading Basilica.ro!
